Patient Safety

Patient safety is about managing and reducing risk to ensure that the care patients receive is as safe as possible. UHN has recently showcased lessons learned from recent incidents to communicate how a variety of risks can be avoided.

Learning from Incidents - Email
Express consent had been sought from all patients in a department to communicate department-wide news and to request their participation in a survey. Those who provided their consent and email address were emailed a survey as a group. Instead of placing the names in the ‘Bcc’ field (which is hidden) the names were inserted...More>>

Learning from Incidents - Oops, wrong patient!
Mr. Ryan Smith, a regular outpatient at the hospital, arrived for his weekly appointment. Registration recognized him, pulled his chart and showed him to the waiting area. Shortly after, Mr. Ryan Smith was called to be seen by the health care practitioner and his chart was reviewed. Following the written orders, the health care practitioner proceeded to...More>>

Learning from Incidents - Social Media
A group of clinical staff members decided to make a video about hand washing to inspire their colleagues. Staff who wanted to participate signed consent forms. They were filmed entering the hospital and moving through their daily tasks, washing their hands at many points along the way. The video was uploaded onto YouTube for easy access. Shortly after it was posted, someone noticed...More>>

Learning from Inicidents - Reporting incidents is a good thing!
Improving patient safety and preventing incidents requires commitment from everyone at UHN.
An important tool in informing and guiding our patient safety initiatives is the Patient/Visitor Incident Reporting eForm that many of you are familiar with. UHN takes incident reports seriously. By analyzing the incidents that are reported by you, UHN is able to identify process and system issues, and develop improvement strategies to prevent...More>>

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